


A Slight Complication

by protectchatnoir



Category: Monster High
Genre: Angst, Gen, I mean c'mon, I swear I have no idea how it ended up angsty but whatever, Mild Language, good lord these boys deserve better, in some cases not so mild because it's Holt, in which seperatey thingies happen, maybe more characters but I'll tag em ltr, murder mystery I guess just without the murder, not particularly shippy, not rlly gory but it's Monster High so..., wasn't sposed to be angsty but hey it happens
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-14
Updated: 2018-08-01
Packaged: 2019-02-02 11:09:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 7,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12725496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/protectchatnoir/pseuds/protectchatnoir
Summary: Holt Hyde and Jackson Jekyll are in danger. They know that much. But what they don't know is who the threat is coming from, or when they'll strike next.





	1. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which stuff happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah I know obviously I care so much about this fanfiction- seriously though there are gonna be like at least 6 chapters so it will be longer than I thought. I wrote this ages ago and I'm not as into Monster High now but if y'all like it I might continue, who knows.
> 
> :D have fun

Holt Hyde's childhood was ... complicated. It was mostly a blur, really. Huge chunks of memories were missing. But he was used to that. 

Nothing ever added up, so Holt stopped trying to figure things out; he just went along with his mother's explanation: he had a rare condition which meant he could only stay awake at night time. So he literally never saw the light of day.

Holt didn't care. He got used to that as well. There was a lot of things he had to get used to; things were always complicated in his family.

But one thing he couldn't get used to was the constant sound of shouting, anger, tears. 

It started after Holt's father left. Well, things were probably similar before, the same old arguing and yelling - but he didn't really remember his dad leaving. He remembered some of the things afterwards though. Like the fact that his mom would come home late at night with a stranger who was most definitely 'the one', and how a few days later she probably wouldn't remember 'the one's' name.

And how, if she did have a serious relationship with his 'potential stepdad' as she put it, it would get messy after a few months at most.

Possibly because Holt was a monster, and his mom's boyfriends tended to be normies. Or because of The Thing that happened in the daytime, which Holt knew nothing about.

He wasn't stupid. Maybe acted it sometimes, but he was smart enough to put two and two together and figure out that he wasn't just unconscious as everyone told him. Maybe he was part werewolf or something, and transformed into a hideous creature during the day. That would sure be funny.

But Holt had no idea what really happened when the sun was up. Maybe he was just unconscious - but he somehow suspected that this was not the case.

After Holt's dad left them there were many 'potential stepdads', which he wasn't happy about. Some were better than others, some actually tried to be nice - but some were worse.  Much worse. 

Holt remembered one occasion, when he was twelve, and his mom had almost completely stopped trying to be a good mother. She'd had too much to drink one night and was passed on the kitchen floor when Greg (or was it Garrett?) had come up to his room, also heavily drunk, and started taunting him, called him a freak, a worthless monster, until Holt lost it and punched Greg/Garrett in the face. That shut him up. And Greg/Garrett left before dawn with his bags and a broken nose.

Most of the other boyfriends didn't bother him too much. But there was always arguing. His mom and her current boyfriend would always, always have something to fight about. Seeing as Holt could only stay up at night, his mom often took him to see movies at the theatre with later showing times, usually close to midnight. There were several occasions when he, his mom and boyfriend number twenty-whatever where driving home in the dark. Holt could remember sitting in the back of the car whilst his mother yelled at her boyfriend about some affair she'd just found out  about. The boyfriend was driving and he kept swerving worryingly into the middle of the road.

It went on like this for over an hour until Holt finally lost it and screamed, "What the Hell do you think you're doing, you idiot! You're going to crash the freaking car! I'm sure your affair will seem real important then, when we're all dead!"

After that the car journey was

 silent. 

And after that, number twenty-whatever packed up and left.

Holt did a lot of 'losing it'. He couldn't control it, he just suddenly ... snapped.

 

On his thirteenth birthday, Holt's mom bought him an iCoffin and a set of headphones. The iCoffin was second hand and had plenty of music on it. Nothing that was released in the last few years, but hey, it was something. It meant that Holt could screen out the arguments. Something loud, dance music maybe, with a fast beat. If he could hear the arguing voices over the music, he'd turn it up. Still hear voices? Turn it up louder. And he'd keep turning it up until the music was almost deafening.

And since his mom was nearly always arguing with one of the 'potential stepdads', he pretty much always had his music playing full volume.

But he got used to it.

He got used to a lot of things.

He had to.

And finally, as he progressed into his early teenage years, things settled into routines. Things seemed calm. Normal, even. And with this change, his 'condition' also changed, and Holt Hyde finally saw sunlight. He still had regular blackouts, but they were spread out and a lot easier to cope with.

And finally Holt found a place where he belonged: Monster High, a school for teenaged monsters. He made friends, made memories, and even met a really sweet ghoul who he'd love to go out with. 

And just then, just went everything had settled down, just when his mom had stopped trying to meet new guys and things had finally gotten as close to normal as they could get for a teenage monster like Holt, his entire world was flipped upside-down.

 

***

 

Jackson Jeckyll's childhood was ... complicated. It was mostly a blur, really. Huge chunks of memories were missing. But he was used to that. 

Nothing ever added up, so Jackson stopped trying to figure things out; he just went along with his mother's explanation: he had a rare condition which meant he could only stay awake at day time. So he literally never saw the darkness of the night.

Jackson didn't care. He got used to that as well. There was a lot of things he had to get used to; things were always complicated in his family.

But one thing he couldn't get used to was the constant sound of shouting, anger, tears. 

It started after Jackson's father left. Well, things were probably similar before, the same old arguing and yelling - but he didn't really remember his dad leaving. He remembered some of the things afterwards though. Like the fact that he would wake up as the sun rose to find that his mom had come home late at night with a stranger who was most definitely 'the one', and how a few days later she probably wouldn't remember 'the one's' name.

And how, if she did have a serious relationship with his 'potential stepdad' as she put it, it would get messy after a few months at most.

Possibly because Jackson's family was weird. His cousin, Heath, was a monster, and most of that side of the family weren't exactly normal. Or because of The Thing that happened in the night time, which Jackson knew nothing about.

He wasn't stupid. Jackson was smart enough to put two and two together and figure out that he wasn't just asleep as everyone told him. Okay, so sure, most people sleep at night. But Jackson literally couldn't stay up past the sunset, and he never woke before it rose. Maybe he was part werewolf or something, and transformed into a hideous creature during the night . That would sure be funny - he was one of the only humans in his family and has always secretly hoped to have some hidden monster traits that just hadn't shown yet. Maybe he did, maybe he did turn into some kind of monster at night. 

But Jackson knew that was just wishful thinking. Maybe he was just alseep - but he somehow suspected that it wasn't as simple as that.

After Jackson's dad left them there were many 'potential stepdads', which he wasn't happy about.

 But they nearly always left as soon as they had arrived with no explaination. Jackson remembered one occasion, when he was twelve, and his mom had almost completely stopped trying to be a good mother. She'd had too much to drink one night and Jackson had come downstairs the next morning to find her passed out on the kitchen floor. The current boyfriend, and all of his belongings, had gone.

 Although he never founs out why, or how, Jackson one that when the 'potential stepdads' left, it had something to do with the thing that happened at night. He found things that make no sense: an angry letter to one of the boyfriends singed with the intials HH, a patch of blood on his bedroom carpet, and he often woke up with sir limbs as it he'd been fighting. But Jackson didn't question it; he wanted to know, and yet he was too scared to find out, what was going on with him. Most of the boyfriends didn't bother him. But there was always arguing. His mom and her current boyfriend would always, always have something to fight about. There were several occasions when he, his mom and boyfriend number twenty-whatever where driving home from the movies in the late afternoon. Jackson remembered sitting in the back seat of the car whilst his mother's boyfriend yelled at her for something or other. The boyfriend was driving and he kept swerving worryingly into the middle of the road.

It went on like this for over an hour. Jackson sat silently in the back of the car doing everything he could to screen it out. Mostly reciting things in his head. Shakespeare sonnets, pi, the periodic table.

And after they were back home, the argument continued until the late evening. It started to quiten down then, and by the time the sun set, they had apparently moved on from the fight. But the next morninh number twenty-whatever had packed up and gone. Jackson's mom mumbled something about an affair, but that was it for her explanation.

His mom was not a bad person. Sure, she made mistakes, but she had a lot to cope with, and she lived Jackson. And Jackson loved her, even though he begged her to stop bringing new boyfriends home and she didn't listen.

 

On his thirteenth birthday, Holt's mom bought him an iPhone and a set of headphones. The iPhone was second hand and had plenty of music on it. Nothing that Jackson particularly liked. But he liked the quite, classical music. It helped him to relax. It meant that he could screen out the arguments a little. Every time his mom got into a fight with a boyfriend, he turned up his music until he could focus on it enough to ignore the tense voices and shouting. Something he could really focus on. Maybe Bach.

And since his mom was nearly always arguing with one of the 'potential stepdads', he pretty much always had his music playing in the background. Jackson normally hated any loud noise, partially because he was so often exposed to yelling, but with his music it wasn't so bad. He would still much rather sit in silencewith a good book, but it was hard to read with all the yelling. Jackson didn't like not being able to read. 

But he got used to it.

He got used to a lot of things.

He had to.

And finally, as he progressed into his early teenage years, things settled into routines. Things seemed calm. Normal, even. And with this change, his 'condition' also changed, and Jackson Jekyll finally stayed up past the sunset. He still had regular blackouts. But they were spread out and a lot harder to cope with. Before, it was just like going to sleep at night. But now, he often found himself waking up in strange places, losing track of time, hours, sometimes days at a time. He didn't like it and it scared him.

And although the blackouts were more difficult, Jackson started to feel as if he belonged. His mother enrolled him in a new school: Monster High, a school for teenaged monsters. Jackson was a human, but most of his family were monsters and so he was allowed to enrol. With his blackouts which made life rather hard for him, he was better suited at a school where weird is the new normal, and he wouldn't seem too out of place. At his old school people had laughed at him for his blackouts, or seemed completely terrified of him, for some reason. He made a few friends at Monster High, and his cousin Heath went there so he wasn't completely alone. He         made memories, and not all bad ones, although a couple of monsters there really picked on him because he was a 'normie' as they put it. Jackson even met a really sweet ghoul who he'd love officially date, though they did go out a few times.

And just then, just went everything had settled down, just when his mom had stopped trying to meet new guys and things had finally gotten as close to normal as they could get for a teenage human at a monster school, his entire world was flipped upside-down.

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's that, chapter one of a fanfic that didn't have a name until two minutes ago. Obviously I cared about this. xD
> 
> This has literally no schedule sorry so jist expect random chapters here an there I won't leave ya hanging for more than a week tho so don't worry.
> 
> If you're into Miraculous then check out my other fics!
> 
> Tumblr @franklyfrankiestein, @kittycatcheshire and@protectchatnoir
> 
> Bye :D


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which some more stuff happens.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh honestly idk what I'm doing let's just get this fic out before it burns a hole in my conscience

Although Holt, after over a year of knowing that he and Jackson were the same person, was pretty much used to it now, it was still weird sometimes. Especially when they met new people and had to explain the whole situation, which seemed to happen a lot at Monster High, as there were nearly always new students joining the school. 

And in the quite moments (though there weren't many of those for Holt, having to almost constantly have music playing), if he just sat and thought about it, it totally messed with his head.

They were completely different people, with completely different personalities, completely different everything. They didn't share memories. They were different. And yet they were the same.

Yeah, it was still weird.

 

When Holt found out that he and Jackson were the same person, he was not happy about it, but it didn't affect him in a really serious way. At least, that's how it seemed to his friends. What they didn't know was that Holt's displeasure about the matter which he showed at school was nothing; that was him keeping it together.

But that day, when he got home, Holt broke down. For the first time since he'd started at Monster High, he felt as if he didn't belong. And for the first time in his life, he had no idea who he was.

 

His mother knew as soon as he walked through the door that he had found out. She knew from the mix of anger, hurt, betrayal, confusion and disgust that showed on his face. 

Holt tried hard not to remember that day, and as a result it had mostly faded from his mind. But he remembered shouting at his mom, asking why she never told him, screaming and crying and then locking himself in his room for several hours.

He understood that, after this day, nothing would be the same. But also, he would have to find a way to cope. He and Jackson. And so Holt did his best to pull himself together, and pretend like everything was fine.

 

***

 

Jackson had always wanted to be a monster. 

Most of his family were monsters after all. Maybe he was actually part fire elemental and it just hadn't shown yet? Probably not.

As he grew older, he lost hope. But that day, the day when he found out that he was.. Holt, everything changed. Bad ways, good ways, it all just changed in every possible way. Jackson was half monster. It was what he had always wanted. But he and Holt were the same person. Him and the one person he literally couldn't stand. Obviously Holt and Jackson had never met. But Jackson knew plenty about Holt. He knew enough to be one hundred percent certain that they were very much different people. And yet they weren't.

Well, it did mean that now, when the normie woke up in a dark alley with no idea where he was, there was someone to blame. He wasn't insane. Not yet, anyway.

 

The day he found out, the day he found out that he and Holt were one person, he'd held it together enough so that his friends could tell he was upset, and he explicitly felt angry about the situation. But any emotions he showed at school were nothing compared to when he was at home. 

Jackson didn't remember going home that day, just sitting on his bedroom floor with headphones in his hand. This had sometimes happened before, and he had often put it down to being tired and just forgetting the bus ride or walk home. 

But now he had someone to blame.

It was raining outside and the sky was getting dark even though it was only early in the evening. Jackson was sitting on the floor in front of the full length mirror next to the door. There was writing on the mirror. It said 'who am I?'

Jackson had laughed, somewhat ironically, at this. It was funny for some reason. And then he'd started crying because it wasn't funny. It was true.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that happened I guess
> 
> I know I'm not being 1000% serious about this fic but I hope you're enjoying it anywho and if ya like it don't hesitate to leave a comment or find me on tumblr @franklyfrankiestein for monster high content, my main blog @kittycatcheshire for ever after high stuff, or @protectchatnoir for miracul ous stuff, which is where I'm most active.
> 
> :) have a great day! ☆☆


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which even more stuff happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh what idk  
> Sorry I forgot to actually update this ever, but here's a chapter anyway 
> 
> Happy christmas eve :)

"Holt. Holt! Holt, are you okay?"

Holt snapped back to reality. "Huh!?" 

He was staring into two concerned eyes. One green, one blue.

"Frankie! Fine. I'm... fine?" His eye twitched. 

"Are you sure? You look weird."

Holt laughed. "Well, thanks."

Frankie blushed. "I'm sorry. that came out wrong. I just meant... do you feel okay? You're acting strange."

Frankie was nice, but she worried a lot. She was always trying to help, which quite honestly got slightly annoying somtimes. 

"I'm fine!" Holt insisted. "Where are we?" 

"Okay, stop. You're scaring me. I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes and you're acting really strangely! What is going on?" The black-and-white haired ghoul stood up out of her seat, her hurriedly stiched-on hands slamming on the desk. The desk.

Holt grinned. "I'm messing with you, Frankie Fine. We're in Mad Science, right?"

She still looked slightly anxious but sat back down. "Yeah... we're supposed to be setting up a circuit for a... thing..."

Suddenly Holt felt sick. He had a sinking feeling of impending doom, or something.

"Oh my Ghoul, this is Jackson's class!"

A few people around the room turned to look at him, but most were focused on their science projects.

Frankie laughed nervously. "I, um, didn't want to bring it up in case you were embarrassed about it or something. But... yeah, it's Jackson's class." 

The arrangement with classes was pretty complicated, as Holt and Jackson couldn't both take the classes they wanted due to timetable issues, and Holt didn't want to have to take night classes again. So Jackson took the sciences, home ick, clawculus, dead languages - all the academic subjects, whereas Holt did the arty subjects like drama, art and music. They both got qualifications for all the subjects they studied, which was fine for Holt as he seemed to get the lighter end of the deal with less subjects which were generally not as much hard work. 

"So..." Frankie said awkwardly. "You wanna start doing this... thing?"

Holt's eyes widened. "Doing _what_?!"

Frankie blushed again. "The science project!" she hissed. Frankie didn't usually hiss. 

Holt stared at his shoes. "Are you mad?"

The mint-green ghoul sighed. "No. Of course not. But you're acting weird. So, what are you doing, staying for this lesson, or letting Jackson take it?"

Holt folded his arms. "I'm staying!"

"Fine," Frankie said. "But you have to take notes for Jackson, okay?"

Holt perked up after that. "Okay! Soooooo... what are we doing?"

She glanced at the instruction sheet. "We're building a circuit. We need some wires, a power pack thingy, crocodile clips... a _ten_ watt light bulb? That doesn't sound right..." she continued reading the sheet and muttering to herself.

Holt looked around the classroom; he'd only been in the mad science rooms a few times, since Jackson usually had those lessons. There were lots of shelves with boring looking books on them, test tubes filled with brightly-coloured chemicals, a skeleton in the corner... the skeleton was reading a book and happened to glance up as Holt was staring at it. She waved awkwardly. Oh, it was Skelita. He laughed at his stupidness for mistaking a classmate for a mad science prop, and Skelita blushed and looked away. Holt hated it when people blushed at him. He found it super annoying when people acted all flirty and awkward and--

"Holt?" Frankie tapped his shoulder, watching him awkwardly, blushing slightly. Holt smiled, gazing into her mismatched eyes. She was so pretty.

"Um, Holt," Frankie looked like she was about to die of embarrassment. Several people were searching and giggling. He realised he was intensely staring in a somewhat creepy way. 

"Haha! Right. Um. Right! Yeah. Okay."

Frankie shoved the work sheet in front of him. "Do you think this is right?" she mumbled.

Pull yourself together, Holt! 

The blue monster shook his head vigorously to help him focus. "Uhh.. yeah, it looks fine."

"Good." Frankie was beginning to look less awkward now. "Okay, can you go grab a ten watt bulb? I'll get the crocodile clips."

She stood up, ready to go and gather equipment. Holt just sat there looking dumb. Usually he had something witty to say, but today he was completely tongue-tied. "Oh, ten watts?" he said. " _Watts_ that mean?"

His mint-green lab partner frowned. "Well, it means that it's emitting--"

Holt snorted with laughter and slammed his face into the desk. Ouch. A little too forcefully.

Frankie looked like she was about to start crying. "O-oh, you were... making a joke?" 

At first his face hurt a little. Then it seemed fine. But apparently not, because as soon as Holt lifted his face up, Frankie screamed. "Holt!! Your.. your face!"

Something warm trickled into his eye. When he raised his hand to touch it, it came away red.

"Crap, my face," Holt whispered before passing out on the desk.

 

***

 

Jackson woke up in his bed at home, which was unusual. Sometimes he found himself at home, but hardly ever in bed. There was a bandage around his head and his eye felt weird. Great. Holt had gone and done something stupid and now he  was paying the price. Again.

He was about to get up and head downstairs to ask his mom what Holt did, but as soon as he sat up the whole room started spinning, so he lay back down and reached for his phone from the bedside table. Since his iPhone broke almost a year ago, he'd been sharing Holt's iCoffin. It seemed to make sense anyway considering the whole... situation. 

The time at the top of the screen read 5:32 pm. School was well over. He remembered lunch, and then he was supposed to have mad science, but he must have transformed accidentally. Which happened a lot due to the random songs playing through the school's speaker system, monster's iCoffin ringtones playing loudly, and pretty much any other music that was loud enough to cause the transformation. Music was a really inconvenient trigger.

Since Jackson wasn't going to get any answers from his mom unless she came upstairs, he turned to the only other person living in his household.

 

 _What_ _happened_?

 

He hesitated before pressing send. He could always call Frankie... No. She'd wanted to press pause and he should respect that. Which meant not calling her out of the blue.

Jackson pressed send and then flicked onto his music app, picking some horrendous rock song at random. The transformation didn't usually hurt too much, if he wasn't trying to resist it. But today with whatever had happened to his face, it felt like his head would explode.

**

_What happened?_

**_dunno wat ur talkin bout_ **

_Holt. Just. Tell. Me. What. You. Did._

**_what u on about jj_ **

_HOLT I'm not in the mood for this you know it'sreally hurting to transform because listening to loud music is really difficult when I have a FREAKING HOLE IN MY HEAD_

**_come on its not really a hole. anyway i slammed my face into the desk ok_ **

_What?!_

**_i told a joke to frankie and it was funny so i slammed my face into the desk ok_ **

_Nice move, now I can't feel my face._

**_sorry jj i didn't do it on purpose_ **

_You say that every time you do something stupid._

**_:)_ **

Jackson sighed. After transforming several times to be able to have a conversation with his other half, his head throbbed more than ever. 

Slowly rising out of bed, making sure not to stand too suddenly, Jackson stepped dizzily across the room to the full length mirror next to the door. He glanced at Holt's messy scrawl of 'who am I?' across the surface of the glass. Jackson had tried to get it off with nail varnish remover, but it had just smudged the 'who' a little. He grabbed a black Sharpie from his pen bag and added his own graffiti to the mirror. 'You're a jerk!' he wrote underneath Holt's question from so many months ago. And underneath that he added, "It's your fault. You deal with it."

Jackson then climbed back into bed and turned the music on.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> can skeletons blush? idk
> 
> oh I just realised that I said happy christmas eve in the notes at the top but... the time is 00:08 so I guess it's christmas day huh  
> Anyways happy holidays and merry christmas :D


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stuff happens

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah obviously I'm trying so hard with these summaries xD
> 
> So yeah this fic has been sitting round for like half a year and I'm not writing much of this anymore (I'm getting distracted by miraculous and voltron fics lmao) but it's kinda there on my conscience soooo I'm publishing it anyways  
> I think my writing has improved since this?? So it might be kinda bad but hope u enjoy nonetheless ;D

Holt woke up sitting in bed. His head hurt. The mirror he could see from the bed had new writing on it. Holt grabbed Jackson's glasses from the bedside table and slid them onto his face, feeling self conscious even though there was no one around to see him. No one, not even Jackson, knew that Holt needed the glasses as well to see properly. Their eyesight wasn't too bad, so he could cope without wearing them. In reality, no one would care if he did wear the glasses to school. But still he felt strangely embarrassed about it - it was weird enough sharing a room and a phone. And not to mention a body. Holt and Jackson liked to keep their possessions as seperate as possible. 

The knew addition to the mirror was stupid, to say the least. It wasn't fair:

Jackson was effectively the dominant personality. He could live without listening to music, and music wasn't naturally there, so Jackson didn't have to do anything, other than keeping the music off. Or turned down. But Holt had to have the music on. All the time. Sure, avoiding music was inconvient. But having it constantly there like a soundtrack or something got real old, real fast.

Holt loved music, but sometimes it was a pain, like if he wanted to sleep, he had to make sure something was playing in the background. Which made sleeping rather difficult.

So technically it was easier for Jackson to stay in control. And seeing as they had a hole in their head, as Jackson put it (always so dramatic), it was be a lot less painful for Jackson seeing as he didn't have to have loud music playing.

Holt wrote a quick text message to himself before turning the music off, only to come around to the music blaring out what felt like seconds later. Great. Another pointless argument with himself that would probably never even get resolved.

 

**_jackson its not fair i have to have music playin and its hurtin my head ok_ **

_Jackson, it's not fair, I have to have music playing and it's hurting my head, okay?_

**_wat??_ **

_I know you suck at using correct grammar whilst speaking but it wouldn't kill you to turn auto correct on._

**_I don't like you Jackson._ **

_Thank you._

**_For wat_ **

_Using capital letters and punctuation._

**_cmon its not fair stop turning the music back on!!!! it hurts my head please turn it of_ **

_*off_

**_wat???_ **

_:)_

 

Holt growled. This was clearly not going anywhere, so he turned the music down as low as it could go without triggering him to turn into Jackson before lying down and trying to go to sleep.

But Holt couldn't sleep. He felt sick, his head hurt and he was super mad at Jackson. Usually his normie side was annoying, but just in an annoying way. The last few conversations though, Jackson was being  _annoying_. As in, infuriating. As in, correcting all his spellings and grammar in their conversations and sending smiley faces just to be annoying.

To be fair, Holt also had a bad habit of sending smiley faces just to be annoying.

But Jackson was normally sensible, which did not involve sending smiley faces. 

Holt wasn't stupid. He was actually really smart and could do well if he tried. But when texting, he couldn't exactly be bothered to use 'correct grammar'.

"Jeez, Jackson," Holt muttered to no one in particular. "Have you never heard of text-talk? I mean, who the hell uses correct grammar in texts?!"

There was a soft knock at the door. "Jackson? You okay?"

It was his mother.

"It's me, mom," Holt sighed. She poked her head around the door, looking surprised to hear Holt sounding so subdued. "Oh.  Well, um, if you're  hungry--"

"Nope."

"Okay. Well, you're friend's here to see you. Should I send her up?"

Holt frowned, but that hurt his face. "Who?"

"Frankie-someone."

No. No no no no no.

" _No_! I, um, I mean, sure. No. I mean, tell her I'm sleeping. No, tell her that... Jackson can talk to her."

His mom looked like she disagreed but before she could argue he flipped the pause button on the iCoffin.

 

***

 

Jackson wasn't expecting to transform again after his conversation with Holt, so when he did he sat bolt upright in confusion. Which was a mistake because the entire room lurched uncomfortably. 

The normie lay back down and pulled a pillow over his head to block out the noise. 

Slowly he sat back up, wondering what the noise was - his mom was speaking to someone in the bedroom doorway. She stepped to the side revealing a concerned-looking Frankie Stein.

"Jackson, your friend is here to see you," his mother said before heading downstairs.

Frankie walked over and timidly perched on the side of his bed.

"Hey, Jackson," she said cautiously. "Are you...?"

Jackson's head was throbbing violently and the ghoul's voice was unusually loud.

"Why are you shouting?" he whispered.

She frowned. "What? I'm not--"

Jackson winced. 

"Sorry, sorry... I'll speak quietly." Frankie leaned over him, her hair brushing his face. "Are you okay?" she whispered.

The throbbing slowed and time seemed to slow as well, everything silent and dream-like and--

"I'm _fine_!" Jackson snapped.

The mint-green ghoul's eyes widened in shock and she pulled away.

"You should go." Jackson rolled onto his side and closed his eyes.

"Jackson. I really need to talk..."

He sat up again, facing her. "Well, I don't want.." he watch as her face fell and she got up to leave. "Wait. I'm sorry, I - I just feel kind of tired. Okay, we... we can talk."

Looking relieved, Frankie sat back down. 

"Cool! So, do you know what happened? I was there, but Holt was acting really strange before he hurt himself and I'm worried--"

"Wait, you were with him? What did he even do? I texted him but he wouldn't give me a straight answer!"

"Well... we were in mad science, and Holt looked kinda... zoned out, I guess. It was supposed to be your lesson. But Holt wanted to stay, so I told him to take notes, and he just looked really deep in thought, and then he told a really crappy joke, and then he slammed his head into the desk, and then he passed out." A tear trickled down her cheek and made one of her bolts spark. 

Jackson frowned. It hurt. He stopped frowning.  

"Hey, Frankie. It's okay, we'll figure out what's wrong. Don't worry about it, okay?"

She smiled. "Okay. Hey, are you okay?"

Closing his eyes, Jackson took a moment to think about it. Was he okay? 

"Yes. I'm fine. Listen, thanks for coming over, but I should probably be resting, so.." Frankie stood up. "Right! Sorry. Um.. get well!" She waved slightly as she backed towards the door.

Jackson smiled. That hurt too. Anything that involved using his face seemed to be rather painful.

"Bye. Don't worry about Holt, I'll talk to him."

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was that
> 
> Merry Christmas and happy holidays and a happy new year and just have a good time ok
> 
> :)
> 
> Yeah Holt did u hear that it was a reeeeeally crappy joke ayyyeee


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Jackson an Frankie devise a plan to figure out what's wrong with Holt.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yaaaa sorry that this chapter took ages to update!!!! I've been pretty busy, and distracted with my Voltron ghosthunters!AU which you can check out if ya want xD  
> Also I actually made a summary this time!!!!!!! :P 
> 
> Anyways, chapter five is fiiiinally here, so sorry for the long wait! From now on I'm gonna try to focus on this fic a little more ;D
> 
> Enjoy!~

He knew he should speak to Holt. He had kind of promised Frankie. But Jackson's head still hurt, and his eyes were tired, and he didn't really feel like having an interaction with his mildly infuriating other half. Plus, Holt was _stupid_. He wouldn't have the sense to talk about his problems. He didn't need Jackson's help. What he needed was something that made him feel comfortable. 

  So Jackson sat in bed, waiting for his head to stop throbbing, scrolling through a list of nearby events in the next few weeks. One that stuck out was a Christmas fair- it took place in a nearby park on the first Saturday in December, which was a little under a week away. The fair consisted of a Christmas market, but also fairground rides and plenty of fairground food stalls. 

 

Holt would _love_ it. 

 

What Jackson _didn't_ expect was for Holt to absolutely hate the idea.

 

 He sent the link to himself before flipping onto the music app and selecting a random tasteless song- 'punk rock', as Holt called it, yeah, sure, awesome, doesn't help when you have a _hole in your head-_

 

_https://newsalem-xmasfairandmarket.org/ hey look it's a distasteful fair to take your distasteful self to have some distasteful fun with your... admittedly undistasteful ghoulfriend_

 

**_hey jackie i thought u were supposed to be smart, undistasteful aint a word. Also she is not my ghoulfriend so shut up bitch_ **

 

_Um.. rude? This is me trying to be nice, which is actually extremely considerate of me, seeing as I still have bloody bandages around my head from your earlier incident. Bitch._

 

**_whatever jacko idk why youre being "nice" anyway_ **

 

_Because you haven't been yourself lately and I'm worried about you. And I don't want to invade your personal space by trying to talk things through (even though you're, you know, me. So maybe personal space shouldn't be a thing here?) so I thought finding you a nice place with screamy music would be..._

 

_nice._

 

**_I'm not going._ **

 

_Why not?? I thought you liked distasteful music? ;)_

 

**_don't you dare winky face at me_ **

 

**_I'm not going because I really kinda embarrassed myself in front of frankie fine and I can only ever look her in her beautiful mismatched eyes again if my soul ascends and somebody wipes her memory_ **

 

_Don't be stupid. Frankie is worried about you too. You shouldn't be embarrassed. Just go on a stupid date with her. She wants to help. I know she'll go if you ask her._

 

**_If you care so much about the goddamn fair, why dont u ask her??_ **

 

_.. am I supposed to answer that, or..?_

 

**_I'm still not going!!!! >:-(_ **

 

_Suit yourself._

 

Jackson sighed and dropped the phone onto the bed, before thinking better of it and picking it back up. He dialled Frankie's number. 

 

"We need a plan."

 

***

 

It had been almost a week since Jackson had spoken to Holt. His idiotic-monster-other-personality had been ignoring him.

 

It wasn't like he cared, or anything. It just seemed a little bit _rude_  do Holt to so _rudely_ shut him down when he had been _trying_  to do something _nice_. 

 

But he'd force Holt to accept his niceness if it was the last thing he did. 

 

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Jackson asked nervously. "I mean, obviously we're going ahead with it now, but... oh man, he is going to kill me."

 

Frankie nudged his arm. "Don't worry, it'll be fine! Holt will enjoy it. Just leave it to me."

 

He could already hear the fair's music blasting across the street from New Salem's park. Biting his lip anxiously, Jackson stared into the swirling lights on the other side of the pavement, obscured a little by a few of the park's trees.

 

"Frankie! We can't go. There are going to be normies at the fair!"

 

"Jackson. _You_  are a normie. Plus, a bunch of people from our school will be there too! I know for a fact that Invsi Billy and Scarah are going. And Draculaura said she'd try and make it. Clawdeen wanted to come as well. I'm relatively certain that Heath will be there. Come on! It will be _fine_."

 

He sighed. There was no use arguing with Frankie. _"Fine."_

 

"Great! Um... are we going to cross the road, or...?"

 

"Sure, whatever."

 

On the other side of the road, the music was even louder. It wasn't quite loud enough to trigger the transformation, but Jackson knew that if they got any closer, he would probably change. 

 

Jackson reached into his shoulder back and pulled out the sound-reduction headphones he'd brought along, and slipped them on. 

 

"Okay," he said, blinking in surprise when he couldn't even hear his own voice. "Operation 'figure out what the heck is up with Holt' is go."

 

After entering the park, he allowed Frankie to guide him through the fair until they were far enough into the park that Holt wouldn't be able to get away from the music easily. 

 

Bracing himself for the change, Jackson pulled the headphones off, and resisted the transformation long enough to shove them in Frankie's direction, before giving in to the music.

 

*** 

 

Holt did _not_  expect to open his eyes to fluorescent lights and screaming music. 

 

Oh, that normie had some _nerve_.

 

He sighed and shoved his way through the crowd, hopefully towards the nearest exit.

"Wait, Holt, where are you going?"

 

Holt froze, and turned around apprehensively. That was-

 

 _"Frankie?"_  His hand flew up instinctively to the small scar on his forehead from the week before.

 

"I know you're upset, but I'm not judging you, I promise! Please don't be embarrassed about what happened last week. I don't really understand why you were acting strange, but I'm not judging. Please, Holt, just hear me out. We want to help you. And avoiding me by skipping class is not going to work! What is going on?"

 

"Frankie!" he hissed. "People are staring!"

 

"Let them stare."

 

He closed his eyes briefly, hoping it was all just a dream.

It wasn't.

 

"Last week, I... I don't _know_  what was going on. I was thinking a lot about my childhood, and I was... distracted, I guess. And I was so embarrassed when I ended up in Jackie's class. And then I hit my head, and that was embarrassing." He shrugged. "I'm just... I'm fine. Please don't worry about me."

 

"Okay. I'm glad you're okay. And you don't need to feel embarrassed around me, okay? We all do embarrassing stuff."

She took his hand. 

"If you're fine, you'll stay with me, right? They have bumper cars?"

 

Holt felt a grin creeping onto his face.

 

"Fine. But I'll have you know, I'm still pissed at you guys for tricking me into coming here."

 

And he kinda was. Jackson was a jerk. He'd been standing up for himself more recently, and though Holt should probably be supporting that, he was finding it kind of annoying. 

 

 _Holt_  was the cool one. _Holt_  was the one with friends. Jackson couldn't _survive_  without Holt. 

 

But he was beginning to feel like his other side didn't need him anymore.

 

Seriously- plotting with Frankie to get him to come into the fair? That was- actually pretty smart. Annoying, but smart. 

 

Annoying, but actually a pretty decent thing to do.

 

Maybe it would work out in Holt's favour, anyway.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> DUN DUN DUNNNN
> 
> So I hope you liked chapter five! If ya did, reviews are always appreciated, and you can find me on tumblr @franklyfrankiestein :D 
> 
> Have a great day and see you hopefully very soon! :)


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hiiii!! So this chapter is kinda short but hey I've not updated in five months so hopefully you'll enjoy it anyway :))) 
> 
> Warning: this chapter is set in a potentially stressful fairground environment w/ music and lights and talk of panic attacks later on so take care!!

"Uh, Frankie Fine, are you sure this is the best idea?" Holt asked nervously as a normie shot him a death glare. "I mean, I know monster/normie relations are better now, but-"

 

"You and Jackson worry too much. You're being _paranoid,_ Holt. No one's out to get you. Hey, look, there's Scarah with Clawdeen! Hey, guys!"

 

Frankie dragged him throigh the crowds of people towards their friends.

 

"Frankie!" Clawdeen exclaimed. "You're here! I was worried you wouldn't make it, ghoul!"

 

"Of course! We wouldn't miss it for the world." Frankie looked around. "Where's everyone else? I thought Clawd and Draculaura were supposed to be here? And where's Invisi Billy?"

 

"Here," said a disembodied voice, and Invisi Billy materialised. "This place is crazy! I've never seen so many normies in my unlife, man."

 

Scarah nodded. "It's a little overwhelming, I must admit. So many people, so many thoughts. I keep accidentally picking things up, and-"

She frowned, and lifted her fingers to her temples. "I... I think something's wrong. Someone put-"

 

The telepath's words were cut off as a group of normie teenagers barged in front of them, and Invisi Billy and Scarah were lost to the crowd.

Clawdeen shuddered. "I hope everything's okay. Scarah seemed pretty wigged out. Hey, I'm gonna go find Clawd and Drac. I think they're on the waltzer."

 

"What's that?" Frankie asked, puzzled. 

 

"You've never been on a waltzer? Oh, ghoul, you're missing out. Holt, what do you say? Think we should take Frankie on the waltzer?"

 

Holt grinned. "Sure thing. But I wanna hit the hotdogs after, mkay?"

 

"Sounds like a plan," Frankie agreed.  

 

 

By the time they reached the waltzer, the ride was slowing down. Once it had stopped completely, everyone who had been on it piled off, laughing and shouting and looking dizzy.

 

"Wow, this ride looks intense!" Frankie shouted over the waltzer's blaring music. 

 

"It ain't nothing, Frankie Fine. I've been on rides _way_ more scar-" 

Holt was cut off by somebody jumping in front of him and engulfing Frankie in an over enthusiastic hug. 

 

 _"Frankie!_ Are you going on the waltzer? I just went on with Clawd and it was so much fun!" 

 

Ah, Draculaura. Clawd wasn't far behind, and he came over to hug Clawdeen and give Holt a fistbump.

"Hey, sis! Holt, haven't seen you in a while." 

 

"Yeah, I smashed my face into a desk, dude." Holt pointed to the scar on his forehead, and Clawd chuckled sympathetically. 

 

"So I've heard. You doing okay?" 

 

"I'm fine. But we should probably get on this ride or they'll start without us, yo."

 

Frankie nodded and untangled herself from Draculaura's embrace. "Holt's ride, we should go get on. Clawdeen, you're coming too, right?"

 

Clawdeen pulled a face. "I dunno, Frankie. It sounded like fun a minute ago but now..." 

She glanced at Clawd and took a small step away from him. "You look like you're gonna be sick, bro. Nah, I think I'll wait here." 

 

"Okie dokie! Come on, Holt, let's go get a seat." 

Holt allowed Frankie to drag him onto the ride and shove him into the nearest car. Absent-mindedly he handed his money to the guy working the ride and pulled the safety bar down. Was this _really_ a good idea? It hadn't been very long since he hurt his head, and - _too late._ The ride had started up even though he and Frankie were currently the only ones in car. It started moving around - slowly at first, but getting faster and faster. 

 

 _Hey, this isn't so bad,_ Holt thought to himself. _The flashing lights and deafening music are_ kinda _giving me a headache, but I can cope with it. It's kinda stressful and the smoke from the smoke machine is a little too much and the lights are so bright but this is okay._

 

It was fine. 

 

Everything was fine. 

 

And then suddenly he couldn't breathe. 

 

_Oh no oh no this was bad._

 

 _No, no, keep it together._  He was probably just panicking. He was panicking, right? Needlessly panicking. Holt had had panic attacks before, and often they made it hard to breathe, so this was totally normal and not weird and he just needed to calm down and take deep breaths and- _no, this was different, this was worse, this was bad._

Suddenly the smoke machine's artificial fog was clogging up his lungs and _no, this was wrong, this wasn't supposed to happen this couldn't be good this-_

 

Maybe he yelled and maybe Frankie said something but the music drowned it out and suddenly it was _too much and he couldn't breathe and his lungs hurt_ and everything happened so quickly that it _could_ have been a dream but the pressure in his chest from lack of oxygen reminded him that he was still alive but _if he didn't breathe soon he might not be for much longer and-_ suddenly the awful blinking strobe lights went black.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oKAY SO HOPEFULLY AFTER THIS LITTLE CHAPTER I'LL START POSTING ACTUAL CHAPTERS and soon we'll be getting into the actual plot rather than this slow slow build up I've been at for the past year alslaslladkakdlskdskdj 
> 
> Well anyway thanks for reading and I hope you have a great day or night!!! :)
> 
> (Sorry if there are errors or typos it's late lmao I'll edit in the morning)


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